Well...here I am, the night before I'm leaving to come home. Wow. These past four and a half months went by sooooo fast!!!
I just got back from Townsville on Thursday. It was the perfect way to end my time here. I got 4 quality beach days in. Literally, all I would do is wake up, walk to the beach, lay out for the day, and go back to eat and go to bed. I didn't even spend more than $40...which compared to the rest of my trip is mind-blowing to me haha.
Townsville is gorgeous. If I even buy land here in Australia, it will be in Townsville. There is a mountain in the middle of the city, a big, natural waterfall on the main street, and a huge island, called Magnetic Island (affectionately known here as "Maggie") right off the coast. The water is clear blue and calm since the beaches are set in the small bay because of Maggie. It was a perfect few days for me.
I was pretty nervous on my way back to Newcastle. Thursday night, I was scheduled to cut my hair. Not just a trim...a massacre. I donated! Finally...got rid of all that hair. I got to say, it feels good! I was definitely ready for a change. My friends were there for moral support during the big snip-snip, and then I met up with them afterwards for some drinks. That night, all of us from our group got together and cooked up every piece of food we had left from our apartments. We also finished up all the alcohol we had. Needless to say...I was feeling pretty full at the end of the night!! It was a fun way to end our time in Newcastle though.
Now, I'm in Sydney for my last night. I head out for the airport tomorrow morning at 10 AM and take off at 1:50. I'll be home at 8:50 Sunday night (your time) and I'm really excited!! I've had the time of my life here in Australia, but I'm ready to come home!!
I hope you all enjoyed reading my stories about my time here! Thank you so much for reading them and for the positive feedback I've gotten from them! I'm super excited to see all of you when I get home!!
See you soon!!
Mindy
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Road Trip!
Math has never been my best subject. That being said...2 girls + 1 campervan + 3 states + 1 territory + 4 cities/capitals + 10 days + 1400 miles + endless amounts of problems = A BLAST
I just got back from my big road trip with my roommate Lisa Mingo, and it was amazing! We got to see so many different places. We saw pretty much every terrain Australia has to offer from rainforests to tropical to dry desert to mountains. But, there were some bumps along the way. Actually, that is putting it mildly. Murphy's Law has a new meaning when it comes to this trip. Almost everything that could go wrong pretty much did. But, it all made for better stories and a more eventful trip!
The first problem we encountered happened about a week before we left. We were planning our trip around Mingo's last exam, which she thought was on June 25. So, we planned on leaving on June 11 and getting home on June 20. That way, Mingo would have time to study before her last final. So, about a week before we left, we booked everything: the campervan, the accommodations, and the flight home. I also thought that I would have a little money left over, so I planned a little trip up north to Townsville for June 21-25 for some quality beach time before coming home. Well...2 days after everything was official, Lisa checked her exam date. It was scheduled for June 15. I was mildly irate after hearing this. Granted, it was an honest mistake on her part, but still, I thought she had double checked before we booked everything. Clearly, I was wrong.
Immediately, we started going through our options. Cancelling or changing dates would just be way to expensive and I wasn't happy with either of those decisions. So, I grew a backbone and told her that the best, cheapest option is for her to by a roundtrip flight back to Newcastle the day of her exam. Luckily, we were scheduled to be in Melbourne on the 15, which is one of three cities that have direct flights into Newcastle's itty bitty airport. It all worked out...Lisa purchased a ticket from Melbourne to Newcastle. This way, she would only lose a day on the trip and it wouldn't cost me anything. End problem 1.
So, June 11 finally came along and it was time to go! We spent the night in Sydney and picked up our van the next day and headed down to Canberra. I was the first one to drive and, I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary. First, the van they gave us was a stick-shift. Nope...not in my book. I never learned how to drive one and neither had Lisa. Whoops! Luckily, they had an automatic for us! As most of you know...Australia is upside down. They drive on the opposite side of the road and car. It was extremely weird at first...but I got the hang of it quickly. Driving in a metropolitan area was actually very good for us at first. It was impossible to turn into the wrong lane because you are always following somebody! My proof behind this statement: while on our way to Canberra, we pulled onto a country road with nobody on it to get to a gas station. I definitely turned into the wrong lane and was driving down it for about 5 minutes before either of us even realized it haha. Whoops!
Anyways...the drive down to Canberra took about 4 hours. We came extremely close to running out of gas. Our van had about an 8 gallon tank and I swear it was getting like 3 miles to the gallon. HORRIBLE gas mileage...which led to some difficulties that I'll get to in a bit. We got to Canberra and got to look around and see some of the sites. It is an extremely smaller version of Washington D.C. Canberra is Australia's nation capital. It, like D.C., has its own territory. It is in the Australian Capital Territory. We got to see the new Parliament house and the old Parliament house, which were pretty cool. We also saw the Nation's History Museum. Canberra was our educational stop =) . That night was also our first night sleeping in the van. We found a parking ramp and parked there for the night...it only cost us $2!! Steal!
I'm going to admit, though, that first night was awful! It was about 20 degrees outside. If you guys were to see us, you probably would have died laughing. We were completely layered up in sweatpants and sweatshirts, curled up in tiny balls, & practically sleeping on top of one another. I was wearing a beanie and well. Each of us only had 2 blankets...which weren't very thick. It was horrible!!! We went to target at 7:00 the next morning and bought more blankets haha!
We left Canberra on the 13 and started our 8 hour trip to Melbourne. The drive was beautiful! And it was just the start of the beautiful landscapes!! It almost looked like we were in Ireland. Green hills everywhere full of sheep! The drive was long, but we kept ourselves fully entertained. It was the first time in months either of us had listened to a radio! We had all new songs to sing to!
Melbourne is, simply put, amazing! Sydney is still my favorite city, but Melbourne closely follows. I'm sure if I could have spent more than 2 days there, it could have surpassed Sydney. Downtown is full of life...shops, restaurants, and cafes are everywhere. There is a huge Tram system, making transportation there very easy. Our first day there was Lisa's only day there, so we hit up many sites. We went to the Victoria State Library, toured Melbourne Gaol (Jail), went through Captain Cook's (Australia's "Christopher Columbus") Cottage, and went to the very top of the city's tallest building and got to see all of Melbourne from up top. It was such a fun day!
The Gaol was my favorite part. It is in the middle of downtown, and was stopped being used back in 1993. Within the past 2 years, they've turned it into a memorial. We got to go in and look at all the cells and learn about Ned Kelly. Those of you who haven't heard of Ned Kelly, he is kind of like Australia's modern Robin Hood. We also go to be treated like prisoners by getting locked up in a pitch black cell for 10 minutes. It sounds kind of morbid, but it actually was pretty cool. It for sure makes me want to stay out of prison!!
Day 2 in Melbourne was my day alone, as Lisa flew up to Newcastle early morning and wouldn't be returning until late that night. It wasn't an action-filled day. I mostly did some souvenir shopping and toured more of the city.
I picked Lisa up from the airport when she landed and we headed off to start our journey down the Great Ocean Road. If any of you ever plan a trip to Australia, please, please please make this one of your stops! It was my favorite part of the trip. We divided it up into 4 days. Day 1 was driven at night, which wasn't very smart on our part. I'm super bummed actually because this is the part where you are literally driving along the cliffs with the ocean right there. I could see some of it (I was driving while Lisa slept), but I really wish I could have seen this part during sunlight. Day 2 on the Road was amazing though. We started in a town called Apollo Bay and walked around the beach there for a bit before heading our to Cape Otway. Cape Otway is the home to Australia's very first lighthouse. We got to tour it. It was so pretty. The sandstone cliffs were all around the lighthouse, making it just beautiful. We also got to see some of the Cape Otway Rainforest. Day 3 consisted of us going whale watching and seeing the 12 Apostles. Activity wise, it was a bummer day. We didn't see any whales and we just missed the 12 Apostles at sunset by 10 minutes! Scenery and landscape wise, it definitely did not disappoint. It is winter down there and the water is still aqua blue and gorgeous!! That night, we got to stay in a hotel. Not the van. Not a cheap hostel. An actual hotel. Basically, it was amazing. We had heat!! Haha! The room was super nice! We had a kitchen, a really nice bathroom, a huge bed, a living room, and CABLE!! We watched movies all night. We each showered 3 times as well. The bathroom was too nice to resist!! Especially compared to our nasty apartment bathroom. The next day was the last part of our journey on the Great Ocean Road. We made a lot of stops and random lookouts along the way, taking many many pictures!
After we were finished with the Great Ocean Road, we headed up north to Adelaide. Adelaide is located in the state of South Australia. We spent 2 nights there. There wasn't much to do, actually. Compared to the rest of our trip, Adelaide was pretty boring. We did some shopping and some site-seeing, but that is it. We were planning on going out to the infamous Kangaroo Island, but we were both out of money. Since our van had such horrible gas mileage...our gas estimates were off...WAY off. Before we left, we had, how do I put this...naive educated guesses (?), on how much gas would cost us. Well, it cost us our trip to Kangaroo Island. Huge bummer.
We returned the van on the second to last day and spent our last night in a hostel before flying out in the morning. Ha! That was another problem...I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but there are 3 countries in the world that have "half-hour timezones." Australia is one of these countries...the others being Iraq and India...not exactly the most "touristy" spots in the world. I have NEVER heard of this before, but it exists. Lisa and I were completely unaware of this the entire time in Adelaide. So...we missed our flight home. Actually, we didn't miss it, we missed the check in time by 20 minutes and they wouldn't check us in even though our plane wasn't supposed to leave for another half hour. So, we had to forfeit our tickets and book another flight with another airline. AWESOME...not. This trip was one of my very best memories in Australia...maybe even my life...by this was just the cherry on top of a trip full of road blocks!!
Even though we ran into many different problems, we still had such a good time. Most of the time, we were just laughing off all our problems. I mean, honestly, how could we get legitimately mad?? We were driving all around Australia!!! I wouldn't change anything that happened on that trip! Like our camping trip back in April...everything that went wrong just adds to the stories of it! It was super fun and super stressful all at the same time. But, when we put it in perspective, it was still an amazing trip and life experience.
I'm heading up to Townsville now for some quality beach time!! You will probably hear from me right before I head home. Enjoy the nice hot weather you guys are having!! I think you've earned it after such a long winter!!! =)
Mindy
I just got back from my big road trip with my roommate Lisa Mingo, and it was amazing! We got to see so many different places. We saw pretty much every terrain Australia has to offer from rainforests to tropical to dry desert to mountains. But, there were some bumps along the way. Actually, that is putting it mildly. Murphy's Law has a new meaning when it comes to this trip. Almost everything that could go wrong pretty much did. But, it all made for better stories and a more eventful trip!
The first problem we encountered happened about a week before we left. We were planning our trip around Mingo's last exam, which she thought was on June 25. So, we planned on leaving on June 11 and getting home on June 20. That way, Mingo would have time to study before her last final. So, about a week before we left, we booked everything: the campervan, the accommodations, and the flight home. I also thought that I would have a little money left over, so I planned a little trip up north to Townsville for June 21-25 for some quality beach time before coming home. Well...2 days after everything was official, Lisa checked her exam date. It was scheduled for June 15. I was mildly irate after hearing this. Granted, it was an honest mistake on her part, but still, I thought she had double checked before we booked everything. Clearly, I was wrong.
Immediately, we started going through our options. Cancelling or changing dates would just be way to expensive and I wasn't happy with either of those decisions. So, I grew a backbone and told her that the best, cheapest option is for her to by a roundtrip flight back to Newcastle the day of her exam. Luckily, we were scheduled to be in Melbourne on the 15, which is one of three cities that have direct flights into Newcastle's itty bitty airport. It all worked out...Lisa purchased a ticket from Melbourne to Newcastle. This way, she would only lose a day on the trip and it wouldn't cost me anything. End problem 1.
So, June 11 finally came along and it was time to go! We spent the night in Sydney and picked up our van the next day and headed down to Canberra. I was the first one to drive and, I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary. First, the van they gave us was a stick-shift. Nope...not in my book. I never learned how to drive one and neither had Lisa. Whoops! Luckily, they had an automatic for us! As most of you know...Australia is upside down. They drive on the opposite side of the road and car. It was extremely weird at first...but I got the hang of it quickly. Driving in a metropolitan area was actually very good for us at first. It was impossible to turn into the wrong lane because you are always following somebody! My proof behind this statement: while on our way to Canberra, we pulled onto a country road with nobody on it to get to a gas station. I definitely turned into the wrong lane and was driving down it for about 5 minutes before either of us even realized it haha. Whoops!
Anyways...the drive down to Canberra took about 4 hours. We came extremely close to running out of gas. Our van had about an 8 gallon tank and I swear it was getting like 3 miles to the gallon. HORRIBLE gas mileage...which led to some difficulties that I'll get to in a bit. We got to Canberra and got to look around and see some of the sites. It is an extremely smaller version of Washington D.C. Canberra is Australia's nation capital. It, like D.C., has its own territory. It is in the Australian Capital Territory. We got to see the new Parliament house and the old Parliament house, which were pretty cool. We also saw the Nation's History Museum. Canberra was our educational stop =) . That night was also our first night sleeping in the van. We found a parking ramp and parked there for the night...it only cost us $2!! Steal!
I'm going to admit, though, that first night was awful! It was about 20 degrees outside. If you guys were to see us, you probably would have died laughing. We were completely layered up in sweatpants and sweatshirts, curled up in tiny balls, & practically sleeping on top of one another. I was wearing a beanie and well. Each of us only had 2 blankets...which weren't very thick. It was horrible!!! We went to target at 7:00 the next morning and bought more blankets haha!
We left Canberra on the 13 and started our 8 hour trip to Melbourne. The drive was beautiful! And it was just the start of the beautiful landscapes!! It almost looked like we were in Ireland. Green hills everywhere full of sheep! The drive was long, but we kept ourselves fully entertained. It was the first time in months either of us had listened to a radio! We had all new songs to sing to!
Melbourne is, simply put, amazing! Sydney is still my favorite city, but Melbourne closely follows. I'm sure if I could have spent more than 2 days there, it could have surpassed Sydney. Downtown is full of life...shops, restaurants, and cafes are everywhere. There is a huge Tram system, making transportation there very easy. Our first day there was Lisa's only day there, so we hit up many sites. We went to the Victoria State Library, toured Melbourne Gaol (Jail), went through Captain Cook's (Australia's "Christopher Columbus") Cottage, and went to the very top of the city's tallest building and got to see all of Melbourne from up top. It was such a fun day!
The Gaol was my favorite part. It is in the middle of downtown, and was stopped being used back in 1993. Within the past 2 years, they've turned it into a memorial. We got to go in and look at all the cells and learn about Ned Kelly. Those of you who haven't heard of Ned Kelly, he is kind of like Australia's modern Robin Hood. We also go to be treated like prisoners by getting locked up in a pitch black cell for 10 minutes. It sounds kind of morbid, but it actually was pretty cool. It for sure makes me want to stay out of prison!!
Day 2 in Melbourne was my day alone, as Lisa flew up to Newcastle early morning and wouldn't be returning until late that night. It wasn't an action-filled day. I mostly did some souvenir shopping and toured more of the city.
I picked Lisa up from the airport when she landed and we headed off to start our journey down the Great Ocean Road. If any of you ever plan a trip to Australia, please, please please make this one of your stops! It was my favorite part of the trip. We divided it up into 4 days. Day 1 was driven at night, which wasn't very smart on our part. I'm super bummed actually because this is the part where you are literally driving along the cliffs with the ocean right there. I could see some of it (I was driving while Lisa slept), but I really wish I could have seen this part during sunlight. Day 2 on the Road was amazing though. We started in a town called Apollo Bay and walked around the beach there for a bit before heading our to Cape Otway. Cape Otway is the home to Australia's very first lighthouse. We got to tour it. It was so pretty. The sandstone cliffs were all around the lighthouse, making it just beautiful. We also got to see some of the Cape Otway Rainforest. Day 3 consisted of us going whale watching and seeing the 12 Apostles. Activity wise, it was a bummer day. We didn't see any whales and we just missed the 12 Apostles at sunset by 10 minutes! Scenery and landscape wise, it definitely did not disappoint. It is winter down there and the water is still aqua blue and gorgeous!! That night, we got to stay in a hotel. Not the van. Not a cheap hostel. An actual hotel. Basically, it was amazing. We had heat!! Haha! The room was super nice! We had a kitchen, a really nice bathroom, a huge bed, a living room, and CABLE!! We watched movies all night. We each showered 3 times as well. The bathroom was too nice to resist!! Especially compared to our nasty apartment bathroom. The next day was the last part of our journey on the Great Ocean Road. We made a lot of stops and random lookouts along the way, taking many many pictures!
After we were finished with the Great Ocean Road, we headed up north to Adelaide. Adelaide is located in the state of South Australia. We spent 2 nights there. There wasn't much to do, actually. Compared to the rest of our trip, Adelaide was pretty boring. We did some shopping and some site-seeing, but that is it. We were planning on going out to the infamous Kangaroo Island, but we were both out of money. Since our van had such horrible gas mileage...our gas estimates were off...WAY off. Before we left, we had, how do I put this...naive educated guesses (?), on how much gas would cost us. Well, it cost us our trip to Kangaroo Island. Huge bummer.
We returned the van on the second to last day and spent our last night in a hostel before flying out in the morning. Ha! That was another problem...I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but there are 3 countries in the world that have "half-hour timezones." Australia is one of these countries...the others being Iraq and India...not exactly the most "touristy" spots in the world. I have NEVER heard of this before, but it exists. Lisa and I were completely unaware of this the entire time in Adelaide. So...we missed our flight home. Actually, we didn't miss it, we missed the check in time by 20 minutes and they wouldn't check us in even though our plane wasn't supposed to leave for another half hour. So, we had to forfeit our tickets and book another flight with another airline. AWESOME...not. This trip was one of my very best memories in Australia...maybe even my life...by this was just the cherry on top of a trip full of road blocks!!
Even though we ran into many different problems, we still had such a good time. Most of the time, we were just laughing off all our problems. I mean, honestly, how could we get legitimately mad?? We were driving all around Australia!!! I wouldn't change anything that happened on that trip! Like our camping trip back in April...everything that went wrong just adds to the stories of it! It was super fun and super stressful all at the same time. But, when we put it in perspective, it was still an amazing trip and life experience.
I'm heading up to Townsville now for some quality beach time!! You will probably hear from me right before I head home. Enjoy the nice hot weather you guys are having!! I think you've earned it after such a long winter!!! =)
Mindy
Friday, June 5, 2009
My Day On The Farm!
Alright, so I know I said I wouldn't be back until after my big trips...but this experience was just too much fun to not story-tell about!! I was fortunate enough to take a trip to the Oakdale Farm. The Oakdale Farm is a small, off-the-road petting zoo about 20 minutes outside of Newcastle that I had NO idea existed...otherwise I would have been there much sooner!! It is basically a playground of awesomeness for an animal lover such as myself. The farm had everything from kangaroos to koalas to cows to camels!!
Catherine, our mum, offered to take us all to the farm. No one really likes Catherine for a plethora of reasons, so most people in the group didn't want to spend a full day with her. Well...all those losers sure missed out! Only me and one other girl went and it was awesome.
We got to the farm and it looked like a dive with a bunch of small children running around. I'll admit, at first I regretted my decision. I thought it was going to be pretty lame. We went inside and paid $18 for our entry fee. Then, Sarah and I were heading for the back door to go out to the farm. A woman who was outside was trying to get inside the building when all of a sudden, a kangaroo jumped into the doorway trying to get inside! In that single moment, I knew it was totally worth it. It would have been a huge bummer to have missed this site! The kangaroo was suck in the door, frantically trying to get inside while the lady, who didn't really know what to do, tried to keep the door shut so it couldn't get in. I was practically on the floor laughing at this image. One of the workers came over and got the roo back outside, but it was hilarious.
So, Sarah and I ventured outside with our little brown paper bags of kibbles and bits to feed all the animals. Right outside the door, the crazy roo that tried to make an escape greeted us. He was soooo cute!! He definitely smelled out bags of goodies, so he stretched right up to our faces as if he was begging. So we caved and gave him a little bit. There were goats and sheep all around us too. One of the goats was even standing on top of a picnic table.
The farm is full of different birds. There are some cages that hold some cockatoos, parrots, and kookaburras. They also had a big old ostrich, a bunch of emus, and a a cassowary...the three largest, non-flying birds in the world. They were pretty cool. Sarah (my sister) and I learned up north that Cassowary birds are huge up in the rainforests. Since these birds are pretty fast and since the Cassowary is a dangerous bird, they were kept in cages. The ostrich was hanging out with some red australian deer, which was a little odd.
The farm also had a pen that had 4 dingos in it. ADORABLE! They were soooo cute!! I wanted to take one home with me...well I guess I can say that about pretty much all the animals...except the snakes. Ew. The dingos are Australia's wild dogs. You may have heard the phrase "The dingo stole my baby!" Well...of course there is a story behind that. Its pretty long and actually really sad, but I'll give the short version. A woman was camping out in the outback with her young baby and she woke up one morning and her baby was gone. The Australian police thought she murdered the baby and charged her with murder. She was in prison for like 5 years before the police discovered the remains of the baby and somehow were able to prove that dingos actually stole and killed it. The woman was released...like I said, sad story. But anyways, its only happened once in Australia.
The farm also had a pen that had some horses and camels in it. Camels...really?? They aren't even native to Australia haha. It was pretty funny though. While Sarah and I walked around from animal pen to animal pen, we were being bombarded by roos and wallabies!! It was pretty funny. They weren't cages up or anything. One of the roos even had a little joey in its pouch! They had Red and Grey Kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos. Wallabies are similar to kangaroos, but they are smaller with rounder ears and more delicate features. Wallaroos are a mix of kangaroos and wallabies. It doesn't matter what they were...they were all hungry! I kept my bag of food in my bag. I was petting the kangaroo with the joey when all of a sudden I felt something nibbling by my side. I look over and one of the kangaroos has his head inside my bag digging for the goods! I've come to learn that kangaroos are noisy little turds.
After we were done punching with the roos, we went over to the koala pen. They had 8 koalas that we got to go up to and touch and take pictures with. We couldn't hold them, which was a bummer, but it is illegal in the state of New South Wales to hold a koala unless you are a zoo keeper or something close to it. But it was fun to get some pictures with them.
Overall, my day on the farm was pretty fun. I'm really glad I went! It should be illegal to come to Australia and not hang out with some of the furry natives! Now, school is officially over and I'm getting ready to travel for the next couple weeks before coming home. So...you will be hearing from me soon!!
Mindy
Catherine, our mum, offered to take us all to the farm. No one really likes Catherine for a plethora of reasons, so most people in the group didn't want to spend a full day with her. Well...all those losers sure missed out! Only me and one other girl went and it was awesome.
We got to the farm and it looked like a dive with a bunch of small children running around. I'll admit, at first I regretted my decision. I thought it was going to be pretty lame. We went inside and paid $18 for our entry fee. Then, Sarah and I were heading for the back door to go out to the farm. A woman who was outside was trying to get inside the building when all of a sudden, a kangaroo jumped into the doorway trying to get inside! In that single moment, I knew it was totally worth it. It would have been a huge bummer to have missed this site! The kangaroo was suck in the door, frantically trying to get inside while the lady, who didn't really know what to do, tried to keep the door shut so it couldn't get in. I was practically on the floor laughing at this image. One of the workers came over and got the roo back outside, but it was hilarious.
So, Sarah and I ventured outside with our little brown paper bags of kibbles and bits to feed all the animals. Right outside the door, the crazy roo that tried to make an escape greeted us. He was soooo cute!! He definitely smelled out bags of goodies, so he stretched right up to our faces as if he was begging. So we caved and gave him a little bit. There were goats and sheep all around us too. One of the goats was even standing on top of a picnic table.
The farm is full of different birds. There are some cages that hold some cockatoos, parrots, and kookaburras. They also had a big old ostrich, a bunch of emus, and a a cassowary...the three largest, non-flying birds in the world. They were pretty cool. Sarah (my sister) and I learned up north that Cassowary birds are huge up in the rainforests. Since these birds are pretty fast and since the Cassowary is a dangerous bird, they were kept in cages. The ostrich was hanging out with some red australian deer, which was a little odd.
The farm also had a pen that had 4 dingos in it. ADORABLE! They were soooo cute!! I wanted to take one home with me...well I guess I can say that about pretty much all the animals...except the snakes. Ew. The dingos are Australia's wild dogs. You may have heard the phrase "The dingo stole my baby!" Well...of course there is a story behind that. Its pretty long and actually really sad, but I'll give the short version. A woman was camping out in the outback with her young baby and she woke up one morning and her baby was gone. The Australian police thought she murdered the baby and charged her with murder. She was in prison for like 5 years before the police discovered the remains of the baby and somehow were able to prove that dingos actually stole and killed it. The woman was released...like I said, sad story. But anyways, its only happened once in Australia.
The farm also had a pen that had some horses and camels in it. Camels...really?? They aren't even native to Australia haha. It was pretty funny though. While Sarah and I walked around from animal pen to animal pen, we were being bombarded by roos and wallabies!! It was pretty funny. They weren't cages up or anything. One of the roos even had a little joey in its pouch! They had Red and Grey Kangaroos, wallabies, and wallaroos. Wallabies are similar to kangaroos, but they are smaller with rounder ears and more delicate features. Wallaroos are a mix of kangaroos and wallabies. It doesn't matter what they were...they were all hungry! I kept my bag of food in my bag. I was petting the kangaroo with the joey when all of a sudden I felt something nibbling by my side. I look over and one of the kangaroos has his head inside my bag digging for the goods! I've come to learn that kangaroos are noisy little turds.
After we were done punching with the roos, we went over to the koala pen. They had 8 koalas that we got to go up to and touch and take pictures with. We couldn't hold them, which was a bummer, but it is illegal in the state of New South Wales to hold a koala unless you are a zoo keeper or something close to it. But it was fun to get some pictures with them.
Overall, my day on the farm was pretty fun. I'm really glad I went! It should be illegal to come to Australia and not hang out with some of the furry natives! Now, school is officially over and I'm getting ready to travel for the next couple weeks before coming home. So...you will be hearing from me soon!!
Mindy
Monday, June 1, 2009
School and Upcoming Escapades
Hello Everyone!
LAST MONTH! How crazy is that?? I feel like I just left home! This last month is going to fly by so quickly, too! I have lots of plans!
Right now, I’m a bit busy with school…kind of. My final for my Australian History course is tomorrow. It is a take-home exam that we’ve had like 3 weeks to complete. All we have to do is write 800 words on what we’ve learned through this course…REALLY??? It is a history class! Not that I’m complaining…but usually I’m sitting there cramming in names and dates like it’s nobody’s business for a history final!
My final for World Religions isn’t much different…it is on June 10. It is also a take-home exam that we have 24 hours to complete. We basically have to answer three short essay questions using our opinions and all the wonderful knowledge we gained this semester on all major religions. Again…REALLY??? Thankfully I’m getting credit for all these classes!
For Creative Writing, which is my favorite class, we don’t have an exam! That is NOT the reason it is my favorite class, DAD (don’t even say a word…I know you were thinking it, Pa!) We have to turn in a 2,500 word writing portfolio, full of short stories or poems that we’ve written throughout the semester. I already have 3 short stories totaling 2,000 words, so that is basically done. All my stories are based on activities I’ve done during my time here. I’ve written about skydiving, snorkeling, and the lovely 14-hour flight over here. I should probably include my camping fiasco. It is also due tomorrow.
Well…as you can tell, school has just bombarded all my time this semester. Pshh! I’m just going to put it out there… I’m screwed come fall. School 5 days a week and taking classes I actually have to study for is when the culture shock is going to punch me…and it is going to hit me like a wall – no pun intended! I know I’ve already had plenty of experiences with walls…but I can definitely see it happening this fall. Hopefully, this time I don’t break both my arms when it hits me! [Wink]
So, my life is going to be pretty boring until June 11. That is the day I’m officially done with school and it is also the day my roommate, Lisa, and I are taking off for our big road trip! I’m super excited for this. All the plans are official and everything is booked! We are renting a campervan and driving through 4 major cities, 3 states, and all along the Victoria coast, covering about 1,400 miles in 10 days! We are starting in Sydney and driving through Canberra, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, and up to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. We’ll get to see lots of wild kangaroos and koala bears, along with doing some whale watching and lots of shopping. We also get to see the 12 Apostles, which you will probably recognize from the picture below. I’m really excited for this trip.
We get back from our road trip on June 20. Basically, I’ll rush back to Newcastle, throw in a few loads of laundry, repack, and head back to Sydney to catch my 7:00 AM flight on June 21 to Townsville. I had a little (and I do mean ‘little’) money left over, so I decided to do one more tropical trip while in Australia. Ideally, I would have liked to travel up to Darwin for a few days, but it was just too expensive. I dug deep and couldn’t find anything in my price range. So, I’m doing a cheap, 5 day trip to Townsville, which is a city up north. It is pretty close to Cairns, where Sarah and I spent our Holiday vacation. I’m going through a student travel agency, so there are others going too, but I’m going to probably be a bit of a loaner. I’m going for 1 reason and 1 reason only…5 quality beach days. I don’t plan on doing much else besides lying out in the sun, ha! I’ve already done the Great Barrier Reef, so I don’t want to spend the money on that and there isn’t much else to do in the area, so beach it is! Plus, I need to come back with some sort of a tan!
I leave Townsville early morning on the 25th. I’ll land in Sydney around 1:00, hop on a train, and get back to Newcastle just in time for my 6:00 hair appointment. It’s happening…Mindy is finally cutting off her hair. A shiver just flew up my spine…scary thought! I’ve decided to donate my hair. It’s way too long, especially right now, and it’s time for a change! So, I’m going to be coming home looking a tad different.
I’ll spend all day on the 26th packing everything up and then head down to Sydney June 27 in the morning. I’ll spend all Saturday (the 27th) doing some last minute shopping and site seeing, and then spend all night trying to fit everything into my suitcases. I’ll stay in a hostel in Sydney that night, and then I leave Australia at 2:30 on Sunday. *tear
I’m going to be really sad when I leave, but I’ll also be really excited to get home and see everybody again. This experience has been the best thing I’ve ever done and probably will ever do. It was definitely worth every penny and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. My one regret is not having enough money to travel to all the places I still really wanted to go: Perth, Ayer’s Rock (Uluru), Alice Springs, Darwin, Brisbane, Tasmania, New Zealand…but there wasn’t much I could do there. I did get to visit a lot of places and do a lot of things that I never dreamed: Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Glenworth Valley, Katoomba, Cairns, Cape Tribulation, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road, and Townsville. I jumped out of a plane, camped in the Australian Bush, rode some Bush Brumby horses, snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, swam with a sea turtle, explored the Daintree Rainforest, tackled the Blue Mountains, climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge (twice), and seen some of the most beautiful places in the world…not to mention all that I have in store for me within the next month! I’ve made some lifelong friends and created enduring memories that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ve learned a great deal about Australia as a country; its history, its people, and its culture. I’ve had the opportunity to make Aussie friends and live their true lifestyle. There isn’t an experience that could get much better than this.
But, as they say…all good things must come to an end. Yes, Green Day…I’ve definitely had the time of my life. The pictures below are of some of the things I’m going to be seeing while on the road. There is also another map of Australia. You can see most places I’ve been, places I’m going to go to, and places I still would love to go to. You can also see the path we are taking on our road trip.
Well…that’s it for now! I probably won’t have time to write until right before I leave, so don’t expect anything within the next few weeks! I miss you all very much!! Take care!
Mindy
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